Sorry for the lack of updates guys! I have seen most of you recently though, so it’s not like we’re completely out of touch!

It’s been so busy lately: new clients, admin work, etc, although I’m not complaining!

I can’t remember the last time I had a complete weekend to myself, so last weekend I took my girlfriend out for a well-deserved day in the centre. We weren’t too hungry, so we treated ourselves to a light lunch in Soho. Which consisted of king prawns with a wasabi mayonnaise, satay chicken, mushrooms with a soy sauce, and cubed beef with a hickory barbecue sauce, along with two incredibly tasty non-alcoholic cocktails.

I’ve been meaning to see the modern French re-make of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, ‘Hors de Prix’ (Priceless) for a while and we finally got the chance over the weekend. It’s every bit as brilliant as all of the reviews say and well worth seeing (although not necessarily in the cinema).

A few months ago we stopped using our unlimited pass at our local cinema altogether, so in the last month we’ve caught up! Here are some very short movie reviews:

Iron Man – Best super hero movie of the year.

Incredible Hulk – Far better than the first.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – Far better than the first.

Kung Fu Panda – So much fun. Well worth seeing.

Wanted - Terrible – Wait till it comes out on DVD. Worth it for a laugh if you’re interested in seeing something truly ridiculous.

I’ve yet to find time to play Team Fortress 2, but Will has been sending me these classic videos:

Meet the Sniper
Meet the Soldier
Meet the Engineer
Meet the Scout
Meet the Heavy Guy
Meet the Demoman

…And if these two people were given a taste of the dessert I had last Monday evening, they would have stopped what they were doing and paid due attention to this heavenly pudding of the gods.

Sanj and I had our second business meeting at the Gaucho Restaurant in Piccadilly and I’m glad to say the place hasn’t changed since the last time we were there; they still make the best steak I’ve tasted.

What I didn’t know was that they also make the best dessert I’ve tasted. A few months ago I had dessert at the Japanese restaurant Yauatcha in Soho, which had the best dessert I’d ever tasted at the time… But Gaucho Piccadilly has this incredible Dulce De Leche Cheesecake… I’d had the Pancakes and Ice Cream dessert from their menu last time, which I thought was quite nice, but this cheesecake is on a-whole-nother level. It’s almost rude how tasty this dessert is. Everyone should go to this restaurant immediately and eat them out of Argentinean steak and Dulche de Leche cheesecake and then have the place closed down because otherwise I’m going to be a very very fat man very soon.

Sanj has been a very good influence on my health lately – a small area of his desk in our office is covered with natural nutritional supplements, seeds, nuts and oils and he’s got me taking some of them. We also have a healthy juice drink every lunch time from Gogo Juice in the local mall, where they make the juice in front of you with fresh fruit.

Sanj set me the challenge of trying a shot of wheatgrass after he did last week and after having my first shot, it’s become a regular fixture in my lunchtime menu. I think it tastes like peas, while Sanj thinks it tastes a lot like another word beginning with P. It’s not the best-tasting beverage in the world, but it does taste a lot better then a shot of Aloe Vera – the English language lacks the words to describe just how horrible that drink is. But hey – it’s great for your skin!

Does anyone know if they still use these in schools now? I’m pretty sure they died out at the end of the 80s/eary 90s – such a shame. I was so proud of my PREFECT and CAPTAIN badges at the time. Both were yellow to represent my house colours. As soon as I saw this badge I was taken back to a simpler time: living in the countryside where we had endless adventures in the school playground and Saturday mornings were about cartoons and diabetic-coma-inducing sugary cereals.

To go with my British badge, I picked up some very nice Paul Smith shoes. (you can’t get more British, or London then designer Paul Smith!) and we went to see the new British comedy-horror film The Cottage. It’s not the best film in its genre and it is certainly no ‘Shaun of the Dead’, but it was funny and worth seeing once – perhaps not in the cinema though.

Unfortunately after two weeks of having a mild form of the flu, I contracted the 48 hour vomiting bug that’s been going around London and I’d like to share all of the gory details with you all, so you can truly appreciate your health. I started vomiting rather violently at 4am on Sunday morning and when I say violently, I mean so hard that it was coming up through the back of my nose… beautiful.

After a couple more vomiting sessions and painting the bathroom in the kinds of colours Jackson Pollack would be proud of, I eventually started vomiting blood. I called the National Health Service Direct number and after telling them my symptoms, they told me to get a taxi into the nearest Accident & Emergency hospital.

My girlfriend took me in and soon after taking my details and bringing me into a room, I promptly vomited more blood on the floor, passed out, collapsed and bloodied up my knee.

After taking my blood for tests, re-hydrating me with a litre of fluids from a drip, a couple of injections to stop the vomiting and a 4 hour stay in the hospital I said I would like to rest at home and the doctor seemed okay with that, saying I should take a couple of days off work to get my energy back.

It probably didn’t help that I’ve had a mild form of the flu for the past couple of weeks that hadn’t really taken, so my body’s defenses weren’t at their best.

This is the first time I’ve been ill for any length of time or with an illness of this severity in a good few years. Aside from my work hours, I tend to think of myself as a relatively healthy person.

I don’t mind the whole being ill thang, but what did upset me is that I missed the 32nd birthday party of one of my closets friends. I did make it up to him though.

So… incredible week, but crappy weekend – I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth in this life eh!

Enjoy your health guys!   

Our new website is up and running and displays perfectly on everything, including a specialized design for the iPhone. We’ve got a news widget for anyone who wants to keep up to date with Positive Hype. And this is all just the beginning!

So here’s to the art of the start.

Cheers.

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On an entirely separate note it was my birthday yesterday.

After insisting we’d spend the day and night out together alone, relaxing, eating out and seeing a movie, my girlfriend threw a surprise party for me for the third year in a row. The day consisted of various faux disasters set up by my girlfriend to ensure we were in exactly the right places at the right times to meet everyone. I didn’t know anything until just before when she was on the phone and said “Yup, ten minutes.” And then the entire deception unraveled before my eyes. We all had a fantastic night, going to the theatre in the West End and then we went to a heaving pub afterwards for a few drinks.

Thank you so much to everyone who came! It really meant a lot. Especially those who had a bit of a journey to get here.

If I were to regale you all with the fabulous food that my mum cooked over Christmas, it would provoke longings to embark post haste for my parent’s house, there to eat oneself cheerfully to death and gorge on Christmas delights. Everyone claims that their mother is the best cook in the world, but my mum really is the best cook in the world.

Christmas with my parents in the West Midlands was a haze of frosty mornings, country expeditions, conversations aside a crackling open fireplace, wonderful food and sweets, and a couple of great classic Christmas movies thrown in there for good measure. I cannot have Christmas without watching Scrooged at least once – it’s still timeless and classic and still my favourite Christmas movie of all time… just ahead of Die Hard.

On Boxing Day, my friend John, who I’ve known since I was twelve, and his girlfriend drove us out to Hay On Wye – a small town that’s famous for being filled with pretty much nothing but book shops and cafes. They have an annual famous literary festival where my brother saw Bill Clinton speak a few years ago.

We had a great day out walking in the (freezing cold!) countryside and ended it with a nice meal in a country pub at the Llantony Priory, which is the only building left standing in the ruins of an Augustine monastery that was build in 1180AD.

All in all it was a wonderful break for my girlfriend and I. I haven’t been home all year, so it was great to spend some quality time with my parents.